


am dumb

by riffraff72



Category: No Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 20:10:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16248980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riffraff72/pseuds/riffraff72





	am dumb

Charlotte was bored. Ever since Henry caught wind of a potential security threat four hours ago, she had been confined to her hotel room, and was sick of it. Even Henry appeared uncharacteristically agitated, pacing the length of the bedroom and checking his watch every five seconds. It was rare for Henry to visibly show his frustration (he had been in more infuriating situations than this and kept his cool), but something had been bothering him recently. Something Lottie-shaped.

 

He wasn’t even sure _when_ it happened. He had been hired as her bodyguard months ago now, and until recently Lottie had merely been another of the spoiled rich brats he had been paid obscene amounts of money to protect. Surely this was all she meant to him; surely he wasn’t going soft? Okay, maybe he liked to see her smile. Maybe seeing her happy made him happy, in fact. But that was only because it meant she wasn’t whining at him. Yes, that was it. It wasn’t to do with the fact that when she did smile, the corners of her eyes wrinkled and she looked so pretty Henry’s breath had caught in his throat more than once. No, that couldn’t possibly be the reason. She _definitely_ meant nothing to him.

 

Lottie looked at Henry, his brow furrowed as if deep in thought, and decided to try and destress him by lightening the mood in her own distinctly stressful, irritating way. “Henryyy”, she whined, “you know I can’t just sit around like this! I get bored, and that’s _your_ fault, so fix it.”

 

Henry winced at the sound of Lottie’s complaining. Security threats didn’t usually stress him out, but he still hadn’t been given the all-clear from the security trawling the building. This was the longest he had had to be alone with Lottie, and he was almost at his wits’ end. He sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose between two fingers, and tried to stay calm. “We have to stay here until I get the signal that it’s all safe, Charlotte. It’s my job to make sure you’re safe.”

 

Lottie had been lying on the bed, her head hanging off the side as she watched Henry pace upside down, but at the sound of his reply, she rolled off and got to her feet. “Aren’t you meant to be out there looking for this so-called “threat” too? You don’t need to be in here, bothering me.”

 

He turned to look at her. “That’s not my _job_ , princess. My job is to stop anyone from getting to you, and I can’t do that unless I’m near you. Believe me, this isn’t ideal for me either.” 

 

She smirked; she was getting to him. She walked around the bed and approached him, not missing how he tensed up the closer she got. Standing directly in front of him, she was at least half a foot shorter; she had kicked off her heels hours ago, and was wearing the fluffy white bathrobe left in the hotel room, giving the illusion that she was even smaller. Up close, Henry looked mad but was trying to stay calm. Lottie grinned; this was going to be easy. “What do you mean, “this isn’t ideal for you”? This is your job, isn’t it? This is what you’re meant to do? You can’t just stand around doing nothing all the time, Henry. Sometimes you do actually need to, you know, protect me.”

 

Henry gritted his teeth. “I have to keep watch. I don’t stand around.”

 

“Doesn’t look like it to me!”

 

“You don’t pay enough attention then.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“You don’t pay any attention. You’re a typical princess, airheaded and obsessed with her own reflection. I’m surprised you even realised there was another person in this room.”

 

Lottie smirked. “You do realise I could tell daddy you were rude to me, don’t you? I wouldn’t push it, Henry. I’m your _boss_.” At this last word, she poked her finger into his chest, as if to prove her point. Crossing her arms and stepping back, she grinned at his dumbfounded expression. Easy.

 

Something about the way Lottie was looking at him, a sort of smug smirk as she stood before him, arms crossed with the air that she had won the argument, broke Henry’s indifferent countenance. He snarled as he started walking forward towards her, backing her against the wall of the hotel room. As her back softly hit the wall, he raised his arms and placed his hands on the wall either side of her head. “Be careful, princess,” he growled. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

 

He wanted to intimidate her; not a lot, but enough for her to realise that he wanted _respect_. He had dealt with worse than entitled brats like her, after all. Lottie looked down and he smirked, thinking that he had successfully intimidated her. What he _hadn’t_ expected was for her to look back up at him, grinning: “you don’t scare me, Henry. It’s cute that you think you do, but you really don’t.”

 

His eyes widened slightly before narrowing again. No. He wasn’t going to let her throw him off. He reached into his trouser pocket, where he kept his switchblade. He wasn’t going to hurt her; he would rather die, though he didn’t know quite why. But he had just been called _cute_ ; he had to scare her a little. He flicked the knife upwards and brought it round so she could see it, placing the tip of the blade just under her chin, forcing her to tilt it upwards. He raised his eyes to hers, expecting to see fear. Instead, a flash of _something_ flit across her eyes, as her eyes flicked down to his lips and back up again. Wait. That wasn’t fear, not in the slightest. Was she _excited_ by the knife? Before he even registered what he was doing, he slowly leant his head down towards her own, Lottie leaning in too, the knife still under her chin. Her lips were close enough to his that he could feel her breathing. His eyes flicked up to hers again, but she was focussed on his lips, inches from her own. He felt himself closing the distance until -

 

The walkie-talkie Henry had tossed onto the hotel desk suddenly lit up.

 

*ccchrrt* _Mr Blue. Coast is clear. Over._ *ccchrrt*

 

Henry cleared his throat and stood up straight, moving to the desk and mumbling a confirmation into the walkie-talkie. He glanced back at Lottie, who was still against the wall and grinning like an idiot. 

 

_Fuck. What have you started Henry._


End file.
